212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

262 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
" Ha!" says my Lord. There had been differences between
him and his brother. He may have been thinking of days when
they were friends. Lord Ringwood now graciously asked if
General Baynes was staying in London ? But the General had only
come to do this piece of business, which must now be delayed. He
was too poor to live in London. He must look out for a country
place, where he and his six children could live cheaply. "Three
boys at school, and one at college, Mr. Philip—you know what
that must cost ; though, thank my stars, my college boy does not
spend nine hundred a year. Nine hundred ! Where should we be
if he did ?" In fact, the days of nabobs are long over, and the
General had come back to his native country with only very small
means for the support of a great family.
When my Lord's carriage came, he departed, and the other
guests presently took their leave. The General, who was a
bachelor for the nonce, remained a while, and we three prattled
over cheroots in Philip's smoking-room. It was a night like a
hundred I have spent there, and yet how well I remember it ! We
talked about Philip's future prospects, and he communicated his
intentions to us in his lordly way. As for practising at the bar :
" No, sir," he said, in reply to General Baynes's queries, " he should
not make much hand of that ; shouldn't if he were ever so poor.
He had his own money, and his father's ;" and he condescended to
say that " he might, perhaps, try for Parliament should an eligible
opportunity offer." " Here's a fellow born with a silver spoon in
his mouth," says the General, as we walked away together. " A
fortune to begin with ; a fortune to inherit. My fortune was two
thousand pounds, and the price of my two first commissions ; and
when I die my children will not be quite so well off as their father
was when he began !"
Having parted with the old officer at his modest sleeping
quarters near his club, I walked to my own house, little thinking
that yonder cigar, of which I had shaken some of the ashes in
Philip's smoking-room, was to be the last tobacco I ever should
smoke there. The pipe was smoked out. The wine was drunk.
When that door closed on me, it closed for the last time—at least
was never more to admit me as Philip's, as Dr. Firmin's, guest and
friend. I pass the place often now. My youth comes back to me
as I gaze at those blank shining windows. I see myself a boy and
Philip a child ; and his fair mother ; and his father, the hospitable,
the melancholy, the magnificent. I wish I could have helped him.
I wish somehow he had borrowed money. He never did. He
gave me his often. I have never seen him since that night when
his own door closed upon him.